Contents tagged with Germany

Russia paid no less than twenty five thousand euro for a flight on a private plane for three politicians from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) right-wing, populist party, reported Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

According to the newspaper, the politicians were Frauke Petry, Marcus Pretzell and Julian Flak, who visited Moscow in February 2017. Two participants of the visit have already confirmed its details. The visit marks the first proven case of large-scale financial injections into …

Germany has decided to resume the upgrading of Leopard 2 tanks to the new 2AV7 series, reports Die Welt.

The designation number of the latest modification of the Leopard 2 tank - Leopard 2A7V - is similar to the designation of the German A7V tank used during the First World War. Only twenty such tanks were produced in 1917-18. The new tanks will weigh 60 tons and have a maximum speed of 70 km/hr.

After 1991, the Bundeswehr sharply reduced the number of combat vehicles in service. However, the …

A joint investigation by SWR and the Berliner Zeitung has uncovered that Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, who has been individually sanctioned by the EU and US, is investing in large real estate projects in Germany, DW reports.

The authors of the investigation have specifically linked Rotenberg with the Kudamm-Karree-Hochhaus building complex in Berlin. The complex is located on Kurfürstendamm boulevard in the western center of the city, and includes a high-rise building, shopping center, …

Germany does not see any simple opportunities to protect its businesses from the new sanctions which Washington may place on Iran in the next three months, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Bild in an interview.“I don’t see a simple solution for protecting our companies from all risks related to sanctions in the US,” Maas observed.

He added that the European Union, whose companies have made a large number of deals with Iran following the lifting of the sanction regime in 2016, intends to …

Russia gave support to Catalan separatists before the referendum in October 2017, stated the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany Hans-Georg Maassen at a conference in Berlin, reports Spiegel.

“German special services said this is based on the fact that Russian trolls “riled up” public disputes about the independence of Catalonia. They obviously have evidence that Russia used propaganda to support the Catalan separatist movement…Masseen said that he …

Berlin is ready to mediate in the talks between Moscow and Kyiv on the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline, Michael Harms, executive director of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, told the press agency DPA.

Harms stressed that the main issue is the volume of gas that will be supplied through Ukraine after the implementation of the project.

He argues that Kyiv should not be afraid of a complete cessation of supplies, since the North Stream-2 will not …

A vast majority of German delegates supported continuing sanctions against the Russian Federation during a vote on Sunday, May 13, at the Free Democratic Party (FDP) congress in Berlin, DW reports. Vice Chairman of the FDP, Wolfgang Kubicki, initiated the discussion after calling for a “critical review” of sanctions imposed by the West. This resulted in fierce debates within the party, and as a result, the majority of party members did not support Kubicki’s proposal.

The anti-Russian sanctions will be maintained until the reason they were introduced is eliminated. A statement to this effect was made by German Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmeier in an interview with the German radio station Deutschlandfunk.

He drew attention to the fact that the sanction pressure on Russia was initiated following the Kremlin’s decision to annex the Crimean peninsula.

“After the annexation of Crimea, we Europeans introduced sanctions together with the US. …